Productivity Author, Speaker, Trainer

How we waste each other’s time

While much of my time is spent helping workers to increase their personal productivity, I also see many issues with how we work together. The truth is that your behaviours affect my productivity, and my behaviours affect your productivity. Teams that do not put strategies in place to manage this will experience a sense of friction when they collaborate together. Teams that do work on this will experience a sense of flow.

Most people are trying their hardest, and certainly do not mean to drag other people’s productivity down. It is often unconscious behaviours that cause the friction. So it might be useful to bring to the surface all of the ways that you might be diluting your team’s productivity. See how many of the following unproductive behaviours you are guilty of from time to time.

Meetings

Turning up late

Coming unprepared

Not following through on agreed actions

Inviting the wrong people

Calling meetings at short notice

Not clarifying meeting outcomes or the agenda

Emails

Sending too many

Writing unclear communications

Burying the actions three paragraphs in

Copying people unnecessarily

Writing fuzzy subject lines

Marking emails as urgent every time

Delegations

Choosing the wrong people for the job

Delegating at the last minute

Delegating in a rush

Giving responsibility but no power

Micro-managing the delegation

Not providing enough support when needed

Interruptions

Interrupting too often

Having a lack of awareness and empathy

Interrupting to manage your mind clutter

Making negotiation hard for the other person

Make every interruption an urgent issue

Deadlines

Leaving work until the last minute

Creating unnecessary urgency

Expecting instant responses

Forgetting deadlines

Being a squeaky wheel

If we expect other people to respect our time (and we should), we in turn should respect theirs. With the right mindset, we have the opportunity to amplify the productivity of those around us, rather than dilute it. Play well together.

Have Dermot speak at your next conference

If you would like to add a practical and productive element to your next conference, call Dermot on 02 97979792 to discuss a tailored key note that will get your team working more productively in the 21st century workplace.